Pascal Richard

Another excellent day for the Linda McCartney Foods Cycling Team in the Settimana International in Italy. Ciarán Power took a superb 6th on the stage to Ferrara, whilst Olympic Champion Pascal Richard moved even closer to the lead.

It was a less eventful day generally, which will probably come as a relief to many of the team's followers after Ben Brooks and Matt Stephens crashed yesterday. Ben has now been declared well enough to fly back to the HQ in Toulouse tonight, whilst Matt overcame some early doubt about pain in his knee to finish comfortably in the bunch.

The field was subdued by some truly awful weather today, a shock after the warm sunshine of the first two days. The pouring rain and a flat route-map discouraged all but one or two lonely glory pursuers, and the result was the inevitable bunch sprint. All the Linda McCartney riders managed to avoid what is fast becoming the daily mass stack. The tumble caused a split in the main field, but Pascal Richard had been vigilant enough to take up a position near the front of the race, and used the opportunity to steal some seconds on his rivals. He finished alongside Tayeb Braikia and Bjornar Vestol on the fringes of the top 20, and found himself raised to a lofty 4th place overall, just 9 seconds behind the leader, Mapei's Paolo Bettini.

In front of Pascal and the others, Waterford's Ciarán Power was demonstrating again that bunch sprinting is becoming a forte for him as he took an excellent 6th in classy company. The winner today was Panaria's Enrico Degano, who failed to dent the top of the overall standings. With two stages remaining, Pascal is well aware that tomorrow's summit finish will be crucial.

"Bettini and Rebellin are two of the best five riders in the world on current form, so it will be difficult for me. But the finish suits me, the team are with me, and we will make things hard for them," said the man who signs his name with the Olympic rings alongside it.